I was asked an interesting question today, is there an English equivalent of the saying Zwijgen is instemmen, that is "since you didn't answer, then you agreed with me".

I could not come up with any good example; although I could think of a few similar, but not quite the same, including the following:

I'll take that as a 'yes' then.

I don't hear any No's.

The first is different, since you could also use it if an answer was given, but was not sufficiently clear. The second is different since it is much weaker, it is tacitly agreed that you didn't agree, but you also didn't disasgree.

No idioms that I can think of, but variations on silence is/implies consent/agreement/acquiescence abound.
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DanielDec 21 '11 at 20:46

Daniel, if you made an answer out of that, I would vote it up!
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Paul WaglandDec 21 '11 at 20:58

11

Per Daniel's comment: The phrase "tacit consent" pretty much covers the intended meaning. Also, "speak now or forever hold your peace," from the standard wedding ceremony is similar. Jocularly, the auctioneer's "going once, going twice..." can be used conversationally as well.
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The RavenDec 21 '11 at 21:15

@BlueRaja: I doubt the first occurence of Speak now or forever hold...peace was in the context of a wedding, but you're right that this is the context we're all familiar with today.
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FumbleFingersDec 22 '11 at 22:13

By the way, German/English Dutch/English is not the only language that has this phrase. I know for a fact that there is a Russian expression that, translated literally to English, sounds something like: "Silence is a sign of agreement".

Didn't the same idiom exists in German and Russian, but I know the same idiom exists in Arabic language: Al-Sokoot 'Alamat Al-Ridha, meaning "The silence is the sign of acceptance."
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PromatherDec 22 '11 at 10:30

The phrase "tacit consent" refers to the consent given by the failure to dissent, although that isn't a standalone phrase. "Speak now or forever hold your peace" is used in the context of weddings, but doesn't get much use elsewhere.

Other than those, simply saying, "Your silence implies your consent" works just fine.

"Without objection...". We use this in parliamentary meetings. for example: "Without objection, so ordered." Or "Without objection, it has been moved to table the matter of ..." this is an expedited way of obtaining unanimous consent without incurring the delay of formal and explicit agreement.

The direct translation of the latin Qui tacet consentit that has been thrown around here a few times is "He who is silent consents", but obviously that's not in common colloquial use -- nor, might I point out, is the latin phrase; not among your average English speaker.

In an informal setting, you're more likely to hear "he didn't say no" or "I never heard otherwise", which essentially carries the same meaning but without being a clearly-identifiable saying.